Edit org-mode tags using ido or ivy completion

Question

I'd like to try a different method of specifying tags than the built-in single character codes. How can I tag headings using ido or ivy completion?

I think I would like at least two commands:

1. Toggle a single tag on a heading
2. Edit the list of tags for a heading

For what it's worth, I want to use flex matching for this (I don't think that's relevant, so I say that just to give as much intent as I can).

I'm not using org-capture

Answer 1

For those users of an ivy/counsel persuasion, the command counsel-org-tag (added in v0.6 AFAICT) enables ivy-backed completion (including multiple selection and deselection) of org-mode tags:

counsel-org-tag is an interactive autoloaded compiled Lisp function in counsel.el.

(counsel-org-tag)

Add or remove tags in org-mode.

In my configuration I like to remap the default keybindings of org-set-tags-command (C-c C-q) to counsel-org-tag like so:

(global-set-key [remap org-set-tags-command] #'counsel-org-tag)

or, equivalently without the remapping:

(with-eval-after-load 'org
  (define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-q") #'counsel-org-tag))

Irrespective of how counsel-org-tag is invoked, during completion you can type C-m (ivy-done) to exit with the currently selected candidate, or C-M-m (ivy-call) to select the current candidate and remain in the completion session. Typing C-M-m (ivy-call) over an already selected candidate removes it from the list of selected tags. At any point, you can exit completion with the current list of selected tags by typing C-M-j (ivy-immediate-done). See the ivy manual for more commands/tricks.

Answer 2

It isn't ido or ivy, but you can use helm for this via helm-org. If you use "free" selection (TAB) after org-set-tags (C-c C-q or C-c C-c), Helm will complete your tags with fuzzy matching.